http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/

A Concerning Trend <http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/>

BY NEIL CLARKE <http://neil-clarke.com/author/wyrmadmin/>


ON 02/15/2023 <http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/>


IN CLARKESWORLD MAGAZINE
<http://neil-clarke.com/category/clarkesworld-magazine/>

Since the early days of the pandemic, I’ve observed an increase in the
number of spammy submissions to *Clarkesworld*. What I mean by that is that
there’s an honest interest in being published, but not in having to do the
actual work. Up until recently, these were almost entirely cases of
plagiarism, first by replacing the author’s name and then later by use of
programs designed to “make it your own.” The latter often results in rather
ham-fisted results like this one I received in 2021:

[image: Sitting on its three years' experience, the fittest Shell was
originally the size of more android subliminal observations than any other
single subject in the Grandma. Obey three hundred retorts can't even a
couple was issued for wages to the apparently that dropped the storage
station.]

These are the same sentences from the original story, “Human Error” by
Raymond F. Jones, published in *If (*April 1956).

[image: During its three years' existence, the first Wheel was probably the
subject of more amateur astronomical observations than any other single
object in the heavens. Over three hundred reports came in when a call was
issued for witnesses to the accident that destroyed the space station.]

These cases were often easy to spot and infrequent enough that they were
only a minor nuisance. Sometimes it would pick up for a month or two, but
overall growth was very slow and number of cases stayed low. Anyone caught
plagiarizing was banned from future submissions. Some even had the nerve to
complain about it. “But I really need the money.”

Towards the end of 2022, there was another spike in plagiarism and then
“AI” chatbots started gaining some attention, putting a new tool in their
arsenal and encouraging more to give this “side hustle” a try. It quickly
got out of hand:

[image: Graph starts in June 2019 and displays monthly data through
February. Minor bars start showing up in April 2020. Mid-21 through Sept 22
are a bit higher, but it starts growing sharply from there out. Where
months were typically below 20, it hits 25 in November, 50 in December,
over 100 in January, and nearly 350 so far in February 2023.]

(Note: This is being published on the 15th of February. In 15 days, we’ve
more than doubled the total for all of January.)

*[Continues. and graph omitted here is visible at the page linked above
--TM]*

https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2023/02/ssw-part-1-robert-arthur-robert-bloch.html

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